So long Bobby & don’t let the door hit you in the ass, Charlie

So the coaching carousel started with a whirl with the not so surprising firing of Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis and the "retirement" of Florida State coach and Paterno win-record nemesis Bobby Bowden.

As I stated last week, Chuck Weis will be missed because watching Notre Dame flounder in mediocrity has been delicious schadenfreude. He was the gift that kept on given, every time he opened his mouth something unbelievably arrogant came out only to have mother universe bitch slap him for it. My favorite comment had to be about Paterno and coaching from the press box. When Chuck injured his knee he was asked by a reporter if he would coach from the press box like Paterno did when he injured his knee much in the same way. Charlie's response was "I'm too important to coach from the press box," as if Paterno isn't an important part of his coaching staff. The sheer joy of seeing ole' fat ass sitting in the press box the next week was something I'll never forget.

Bobby Bowden will be missed but for a much different reason. Yeah, Bowden was just a figurehead and yes he was definitely out next season but the unceremonious shove out the door is sad. Let's be realistic, Bowden wanted to come back next season but the administration had enough. Bowden's ACC record was .500 the last four seasons since the Seminoles won their last conference title. There was a lot of speculation and rumor that FSU was going to allow Bowden to come back for one more year if he was willing to give total control to coach in waiting Jimbo Fisher. Personally I think that's BS, I think the administration wanted a clean start and they weren't waiting another year. Although I've always felt Paterno deserves the win record more, because he coached at the same university his entire career and never coached at a school that is not a Div I school, I was hoping the two would go neck and neck and retire at the same time, but that's not going to happen. Say what you want about Bobby Bowden, it was a fun race and it was something that will never happen again. We will never see two life-long college coaches devote their lives to the school they are coaching, that kind of loyalty no longer exists in our "what have you done for me lately" society. We'll never see two universities put up with their head coaches going through tough years like Florida State and Penn State. No, in the future they will be canned long before they get a chance to redeem themselves. Fired, or as the talking suits like to say in the uncaring business climate of today: "go in a different direction," whatever the hell that means.

So Paterno gets his record and Florida State gets their coach and the lifelong race to the top is over not with the dignified pomp and circumstance it deserves but with a brusque whimper. The only silver lining on this dark cloud is that Bowden gets to ride off into the sun; he will coach his last game in FSU's bowl game. School officials are trying to get the ACC to allow Florida State to play West Virginia (where he coached as an OC and a head coach) in one of the Florida bowls, either the Gator Bowl or the Champs Sports Bowl. I hope for the sake of all that is still good in the world of college football, the ACC and the bowls put aside greed for once and grant Bobby his wish.